Finding out where your community interacts on social media is the first step of a successful social media strategy.

A lot of people and companies decide, after using social media for a while, that they need a strategy. Of course, that approach is like putting the cart before the horse. To ensure success, think about your social media strategy in the context of the seven C’s.

1. Community

Like all good communication, it is best to start by determining your target audience. Where do they spend time online? What social media channels do they use? Before your social media efforts can take shape, you should listen and learn about your community.

Savvy event planners know they have to stay on top of social media, but which tools are worth the time and energy to invest in? Which ones are worth the effort and truly the MUST HAVES for any event planner? This video is brought to you by EventMB, the number one blog for event professionals.

Event planners want their events to be successful. Building lots of buzz, amplifying attendee engagement, and creating a fear of missing out for people who aren’t even there can be big drivers for social media communication. But there are so many channels, gizmos, and gadgets to choose from. Which ones are worth the effort and truly the MUST HAVES for any event planner? Before you start feeling overwhelmed, we’ve got the answer for you! Check out these 3 Social Media Tools to Boost Your Event Marketing.

Discover how to measure the performance and impact of your YouTube video content.

donhornsby's insight:

Analyzing YouTube metrics might seem overwhelming at first, but it’s crucial to assessing your channel’s performance. Find out more about viewers, how they discovered your videos, whether they liked your content or got bored, and more to help you improve your future videos.

Social Media Optimisation has evolved into one of the key methodologies for driving traffic to a business website. If your business is not utilising the power of social media to drive more traffic to your website, it is probably time, that you revisited your lead generation strategy. This article (from our topic sponsor), outlines the benefits available from being able to influence a wide audience, and provides an insight into what is involved in social media optimisation.

Coming up with a social media marketing plan is a great step toward diving in to social. If social media looks thrilling and overwhelming all at once, start with a plan. Once you see the blueprint in front of you, it’s a little easier to see what lies ahead.

Coming up with a social media marketing plan is a great step toward diving in to social. If social media looks thrilling and overwhelming all at once, start with a plan. Once you see the blueprint in front of you, it’s a little easier to see what lies ahead.

Since its first use in 2007, the hashtag has spread from Twitter to almost all major social media networks, including Facebook, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, and even Pinterest to some extent. With hashtags pervasive everywhere, we wanted to take a look again at how your brand can use hashtags with success, on any social media platform.

Facebook and Instagram, unless it is an egregious violation, will not delete your account without first warning you, usually multiple times. If they do delete your account, they will provide an opportunity to appeal and often, even if you were in violation of the TOS, they’ll reinstate your account, with a final stern warning. However, I suggest you avoid any possibilities of your account having any issues by simply reading and following the TOS. Sure, it might mean you have to stop doing a few of your favorite go-to tricks, but, as is the case in life, you’re better off doing the right thing. The right thing is to follow the Terms of Service.

Content marketing has huge potential for businesses and is currently being practiced by many companies. If you are wondering what the ultimate benefits are for your company, read why content marketing is the most successful marketing tool on SavvySME

There are many ways that content marketing can benefit a company if used correctly, and it is looking like that it will continue to be a popular form of marketing for a very long time. Many companies have already noticed the importance of different types of content marketing along with their success rate, which only proves that you should jump on board too.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you will be well aware of the rapidly growing success of content marketing, in attracting qualified leads to business websites. What you may not know, is how widespread the use of content marketing has become, and how cost effective it is versus outbound marketing endeavours. This article includes a great infographic, which provides the evidence you may need, to convince you to embrace content marketing and cost effectively grow your business.

While every company needs a media strategy to create awareness and demonstrate traction, it’s only one piece of the puzzle. Media activity should complement and keep pace with the rest of a company’s growth, or it risks creating an image that reality can’t live up to. Successful companies tell their story effectively, but they also have a substantive story to tell.

By now you should know that Instagram is here for good. It isn’t just for teenyboppers. And in fact, it has amazing potential to reach and cultivate new audiences. To get the most out of Instagram, you’ll want to explore the world of third-party tools out there that help make your content stand out.

donhornsby's insight:

To get the most out of Instagram, you’ll want to explore the world of third-party tools out there that help make your content stand out.

Perhaps one of the most useful features of Twitter analytics is the ability to view recurring-trends data: You can access valuable stats on tweet volume for commonly used hashtags; you can then use those hashtags to amplify your brand's presence on Twitter.

donhornsby's insight:

Weekly hashtags, such as #WednesdayWisdom and #SundayScaries, have become standard and are something people look forward to each week. Here's a deeper look at four of Twitter's top recurring weekly hashtags along with tips on how your brand can tap into these conversations.

Earlier this year, Facebook released Automated Rules, allowing advertisers to automatically update or notify of changes within your Facebook Ad Campaigns. When setup properly, these automated rules can let Facebook Ads managers be more efficient in monitoring multiple campaigns. Anything that can save you time and effort is great, right? Let’s examine a handful of simple rules you can create to make your life easier.

donhornsby's insight:

These three, simple, campaign rules can be set up within minutes for your campaigns and can save you time, energy and a lot of ‘campaign anxiety’ – allowing you to focus more on growing your campaigns, fine tuning your the targeting to your audiences and A/B testing more creative.

You probably already knew that you could improve your site’s SEO visibility by doing the things Marcus recommends: Develop a content niche, get rid of ROT, and update the remaining content to address people’s intentions. Sometimes, what you need isn’t the advice but the motivation. If that’s your situation, Marcus’s numbers may give you just the motivation you need. What kind of big data is your team analyzing? What are you learning from your numbers?

"it is against Facebook’s terms of service to set up a personal account using a business name, or to use a personal account for business. If you do this, Facebook can and often will delete your account. Since Facebook knows who you are, it may not be easy to create a new one."

Facebook is a must for almost all digital marketing strategies. Here are some key tips on how to boost your Facebook marketing efforts.

donhornsby's insight:

With more than 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the network to promote your brand and connect with your target audience. You see, many consumers are leveraging this platform to engage with their favorite brands and discover new ones - in fact, one-third of Millenials say they actually prefer to communicate with brands via social, as opposed to over the phone or in person. As such, it’s important to maintain an active presence to appeal to modern consumer habits. Yet with so many brands competing for attention in the News Feed, how can you separate your brand from the sea of content being shared daily? In what ways can you better promote your business on Facebook to foster engagement, expand your reach, and gain new followers? Here are three simple, yet effective tactics to help boost your Facebook presence.

SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter’s defining attribute has long been its brevity: 140 characters in a post and no more.

That is now set to change. Twitter said on Tuesday that it would test extending the text limit of a post on its service to 280 characters. (In effect, that would double the length of the first two sentences of this paragraph; those sentences, for the record, add up to 140 characters.)

Twitter said the goal was to eliminate what it views as constraints that keep people from tweeting more frequently. One significant barrier, according to Twitter’s internal research, has been the stringent limit on character count.

“When people don’t have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare, we see more people tweeting,” Twitter said in a blog post.

It is a significant moment for the 11-year-old Twitter, which has been trying to figure out how to change the social media service without alienating the people who have embraced its short format.

The idea of extending the length of Twitter posts has been contentious internally, batted around among product groups that are trying to find ways to persuade people to use the service more frequently. At 328 million users, Twitter has been criticized for its inability to attract more people. Investors have grown nervous, as that slowing of user growth has affected the company’s revenue.

SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter’s defining attribute has long been its brevity: 140 characters in a post and no more.

That is now set to change. Twitter said on Tuesday that it would test extending the text limit of a post on its service to 280 characters. (In effect, that would double the length of the first two sentences of this paragraph; those sentences, for the record, add up to 140 characters.)

Twitter said the goal was to eliminate what it views as constraints that keep people from tweeting more frequently. One significant barrier, according to Twitter’s internal research, has been the stringent limit on character count.

“When people don’t have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare, we see more people tweeting,” Twitter said in a blog post.

It is a significant moment for the 11-year-old Twitter, which has been trying to figure out how to change the social media service without alienating the people who have embraced its short format.

Looking for new ways to grow your Facebook audience? Have you considered targeting prospects by interests that are related to your product? In this article, you’ll discover how to grow a specialized audience on Facebook in six steps.

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, John interviews Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer for MarketingProfs.

donhornsby's insight:

In Duct Tape Selling, I suggested that writing may be the master skill for anyone that needs to communicate an idea. Even if you don’t write for a living, but developing a writing practice you will become a better salesperson, speaker, thinker, and communicator. Everybody Writes is jammed packed with ideas, stories, and great advice as well as simple practical tips that every writer can use to improve their written communication. I love the last section of the book that breaks down how to write better landing pages, video scripts, emails and on and on – very practical stuff that everybody writes!

How can you inspire more innovation in your own social media campaigns? It’s tough, if not impossible, to force creativity to happen, but you can use these strategies to come up with more innovative thoughts and ideas:

Are you using your blog for business? Discover how to use blog posts to create social media content at every stage of your marketing funnel.

donhornsby's insight:

Are you using your blog for business? Wondering how to combine blog posts with social media content to move people through the sales cycle? In this article, you’ll discover how to use blog posts to create social media content at every stage of your marketing funnel.

A strong and sustainable social media community begins with strategic planning and a qualified team to help execute on a vision.

donhornsby's insight:

Regardless of the reasons why your company desires a presence on social media, just remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither should your social media community. The strength of any community begins with strategic planning and a qualified team to help execute on a vision. Maybe all your leadership needs is some direction for your existing marketing and sales teams. It’s possible your company could use a strategic social media audit to help navigate its competitive landscape. In many cases, your company might need additional creative resources to help create branded content and manage that content effectively on its social channels. Whatever the reason, we would be more than happy to help your organization build its social media community and capture the many benefits that social media provides.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.